I wandered down to the tax office to find that they had shut for lunch (I have now discovered that every shop in Italy shuts for lunch, and they do not eat quickly). I followed suit and had a leisurely lunch myself, forgetting that eating a lot of food often makes me sleepy, especially in 30 degree heat. When I waddled back to the tax office at 2pm in a post-pizza daze, I was not mentally ready for a long and involved administrative process, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that all I had to do was write my name and address and hand over my passport to be photocopied. Italian bureaucracy has proven almost pleasant.

As a member of today's internet-obsessed, selfie-taking, gif-loving generation, getting online is a pretty big deal for me. It's an especially big deal when I've just moved to a foreign country for the first time and internet is my only means of contacting every person I know. So when I arrived in the flat that I'm staying in until I can move into my room in halls and discovered that it doesn't have any working internet, I was sorely tempted to fall to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably and lamenting that I missed my mum and dad. Fortunately I have been blessed with both a healthy level of self-control and a sense of proportion, so what I decided to do was cough up the exorbitant Vodafone fees so that I could actually talk to someone for the night and vowed to find myself a phone contract with mobile internet as soon as possible.

My flatmate told me that there are strict rules regarding registering for a SIM card in Italy so I was fully expecting the process to be both lengthy and unpleasant. It was neither. I pretty much turned up at the store for WIND, an Italian phone network, and said I wanted lots of internet on my phone. They pointed me to a price plan that was 7 euro per month and included unlimited data, 300 minutes and 300 texts, and asked for a copy of my passport and fiscal code. The best part is that there's no minimum contract length, so I just paid for 6 months upfront and that's all I need to do. Phone and internet sorted in one simple process. 

I then went to register myself as a student at the university, an important task as I don't get paid my Erasmus grant until I've done it and Milan is only twenty minutes away. I turned up at the office with all the necessary documentation, only to be told that I needed three passport-style photographs of myself. Not being the sort of person who carries multiple photos of themselves at all times, I was forced to head to the nearest place with a photo booth: the station, twenty minutes' walk away. And all on a day when my skin was looking particularly bad. I'm a positive person, though, so I'm going to concentrate on the fact that I got some exercise out of the endeavour and I probably won't have to show many people my spotty student card.

Finally, there was the business of actually making some friends. Term doesn't start here until the end of September - I came to Pavia early to do an Italian language course - so most of the Italian students have yet to return to the city. I'm generally very sociable (which sounds better than "in constant need of human contact", I think) so the prospect of being in a new town with no friends was very daunting for me. I underestimated quite how friendly Erasmus students are. While I was buying my phone card, two girls entered the shop speaking English. I asked them if they were Erasmus students and the next thing I knew I was invited out for pizza that evening with them. Despite the fact that there are very few British students here (I have met one other so far), almost everybody speaks English so I can even communicate with those who have yet to learn Italian. While I'm acutely aware that the reason I'm in Italy is to improve my Italian, I'd rather have English-speaking friends than no friends, at least for the time being.

So the first week and a half of my time in Pavia has been something of a success, which the shaky, weepy Rowena of two weeks ago might have had a hard time believing. Here's hoping that once term begins and I have to actually start doing some work, this success will continue.